The final table of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe Main Event is underway in London. At the time of writing, eight players remain in the hunt for the £801,603 first place payday and the survivors are led by none other than PocketFives.com member and WSOP bracelet winner Jason treysfull21Mercier, who owns a stack of 3.2 million. Hitting the exits in ninth place was James Akenhead, one of two WSOP November Nine members to make the European event’s feature table. All of the action can be found on PocketFivesLive.com, your source for the top WSOP Europe coverage of online poker players.

Mercier (pictured at left) eliminated six of the final 15 players from the Main Event at the Casino at the Empire to build his stack to tops in the room entering the final table on Thursday. In the last hand prior to a schedule break today, the tournament’s televised feature table saw its first elimination. Akenhead pushed pre-flop for 500,000 and Team PokerStarsPro member Daniel Negreanu shoved over the top. Akenhead showed A-Q, while Negreanu flipped over pocket kings. The board ran out J-6-4-9-Q, giving Akenhead top pair, but he still fell short of Negreanu. Akenhead earned £66,533 for his efforts.
Spending his final day in London is PocketFivesLive.com Tournament Reporter Court Harrington, who has brought the play of online poker players to life in the £10,000 buy-in event. On Mercier’s run, Harrington remarked, “Jason had a great start to the tournament, a rough Day 3, and came into Day 4 short on chips. He bounced back and came out of the day with over 30% of the total chips in play, making him the man to beat at the final table.” Mercier is a WSOP bracelet holder and, in May, tasted victory in the Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS).

Two November Nine members made the final table of the WSOP Europe Main Event, as joining Akenhead was Frenchman Antoine Saout (pictured at right), a sponsored pro of Everest Poker. Saout sits in seventh place out of the eight survivors with a stack of 617,000 at the time of writing. Last year, Ivan Demidov finished in the top three of the Las Vegas and London WSOP Main Events in one of the most impressive feats in the history of poker. Now, Saout has a chance to match or best that mark.

Also reaching the final table is Barry Shulman (pictured at left), the father of November Nine member Jeff Shulman. The elder Shulman is currently second in chips behind Mercier, owning a stack of 2.0 million. He won a bracelet during the 2001 WSOP in a Limit Seven Card Stud High-Low event, claiming $123,000 and defeating bracelet winner Dan Heimiller heads-up. The younger Shulman is the Editor of CardPlayer Magazine and threatened to throw out the WSOP Main Event bracelet should he win in November, a statement he claims was taken out of context, but nevertheless caused an uproar from the poker community.

On the star-studded final table in London, Harrington commented, "This has to be one of the most impressive final tables ever assembled. The cast of characters makes for tremendous storylines – two November Niners, Daniel Negreanu making back-to-back final tables here, Mercier continuing his recent hot streak and taking a monster chip lead into final table play, and a slew of big names in the poker world."

Here were the chip stacks of the eight remaining players at the time of writing, according to the official website of the WSOP:

1. Jason Mercier – 3,245,000
2. Barry Shulman – 2,037,000
3. Daniel Negreanu – 1,478,000
4. Markus Ristola – 850,000
5. Chris Bjorin – 718,000
6. Praz Bansi – 654,000
7. Antoine Saout – 617,000
8. Matt Hawrilenko – 487,000

Mercier and company will be competing for an £801,603 first place prize:

1st Place: £801,603
2nd Place: £495,589
3rd Place: £360,887
4th Place: £267,267
5th Place: £200,367
6th Place: £150,267
7th Place: £114,228
8th Place: £87,074
9th Place: £66,533

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